Responding to Literature

I'm always amazed at how deeply a first grader can dig into a text to search for meaning and make connections.  My favorite stories to use for responses to literature are Dr. Seuss books.  I'll be honest with you, my favorite books to use for anything......ever....are Dr. Seuss books.  This month our book of the month was The Curious Garden which followed a double month long study of Dr. Seuss' The Lorax.  In each story the physical environment changes for the better in one and the worse in another to teach children the importance of taking care of the world around them. My students completed a response to literature, or RTL as I lovingly (lazily) like to refer to them, illustrating the change in the environment when Liam begins taking care of the plants, and they wrote about connections they made to the story or made comparisons to The Lorax.

Before and after RTL's are a fun and different way to get your students thinking about the story they read and comparing the beginning and end to see how characters and environment have changed.  Grab a free copy of my before and after RTL below!

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If you are interested in checking out The Curious Garden one of my closest personal and work buddies Cheryl Saoud over at Primary Graffiti has created an amazing Literature Unit and Freebie to go along with it!

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Finally, I just wanted to share a little silliness.  One of my students made me a paper watch during "me time" last week.  When I asked him why he made me a watch he said it was because I never know what time it is :)